Baked Ziti with Eggplant

I know I've fallen out of the swing of things around here, but how about I skip the apologies for my absence (the usual summer fun distracted me, and then I started a new job, woo!) and instead I offer you this baked ziti. Yesterday after our weekend house guests left for the airport and we put together some awesome new furniture, I found myself on the couch with WGBH on the TV. And Lidia was on. I've never actually watched Lidia before, but she was making baked ziti and it looked good. Like really really good. Like go buy a box of pasta and some cheese and get that in the oven. So tonight we had baked ziti. And when I took that mediocre picture up there and put it on facebook, somebody asked for the recipe (Hi, Maura!), so I figured that was as good a reason as any to get back here. Buon appetito!

Five Cheese Baked Ziti with Eggplant
inspired by Lidia Bastianich
Serves 6-8

1 pound ziti (or penne or some other tubular pasta)
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb skinny eggplants, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 32 oz can crushed tomatoes (or a quart of home canned if you've got 'em)
1 cup whole milk ricotta
5 ounces sharp provolone cheese, diced small
3 ounces fresh mozzarella, diced small (I used a generous half of a standard mozzarella ball)
parmesan cheese and/or pecorino romano, grated, as needed (I had both so I used them, one or the other is fine)
fresh basil, torn, if you've got it - I used about two tablespoons
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 375F.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it generously.

While the water comes up to a boil, heat the olive oil in your largest skillet over medium heat and add the onion, cook until translucent (5-10 minutes depending on your heat level), then add the garlic. After about a minute, move the onion and garlic to the sides of the pan, then add the eggplant. It's going to look like a lot of food. Now's a good time to season it with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the eggplant is soft. Add the tomatoes and stir, then bring to a simmer and cook until it's not watery anymore.

The sauce should thicken fairly quickly if you've got it in a nice wide skillet, so drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes less than it says on the box (you'll be cooking it further in the oven so undercooking it a touch here keeps it from being soggy).

Just before the pasta is cooked, add the ricotta to the sauce and stir it in. When the pasta is done (it should be quite al dente), drain it and add it back to the empty pot. Add some sauce to the pasta and stir so it doesn't stick together. Put half a cup of the sauce in the baking dish and spread it out over the bottom. Reserve another half cup or so for the top layer, but go ahead and add the rest of the sauce to the pasta.

Spread half the pasta on the bottom of the baking dish, sprinkle half the cubed provolone and half the cubed mozzarella over it, then grate some pecorino and parmesan over it, then sprinkle with half your basil, if using.. Repeat with another layer of pasta, provolone and mozzarella and basil, spoon the rest of the sauce evenly over the top, then grate some parmesan and/or pecorino over the whole thing. Go ahead and be generous, here, you deserve it.

Put the baking dish in the oven and bake until lightly browned on top and bubbly, about 40 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes after it comes out of the oven so it can set up and you don't burn your mouth.

Parsley and Pepita Pesto

 
Did you know that the word pesto in Italian doesn't always mean basil garlic sauce? I mean, sure, sometimes it does, but pesto in its simplest sense just means stomped, crushed, smashed to oblivion. The name of the sauce comes from the act of making it in a mortar and pestle, smashing the garlic and pine nuts into a paste with salt, then grinding in the basil and olive oil (and sometimes cheese, but not always). But just because that's how the sauce gets its name doesn't mean that's how you have to make it; these days the food processor is the way to go.
 
You also don't have to make pesto with just basil. That one up there on top of al dente green beans is made with parsley, pepitas (pumkin seeds), garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese. We ate it on top of those green beans last week, and this weekend we swirled it into some omelettes on a lazy Saturday morning. Tonight, I'm thinking potatoes with parsley and pepita pesto, and not just for the alliteration. I like the rounder, subtler taste of the parsley compared to basil, and the pepitas give it an interesting note of earthiness.
 
Oh hey look, other people make pesto out of things that aren't basil!
Arugula Pesto at Simply Recipes
Spinach and Basil Pesto at Kalyn's Kitchen
Korean Perilla Pesto at Muffin Top
Radish Green and Hazelnut Pesto at Delicious Days
Asparagus Pesto, right here, from a couple months ago
 
Parsley Pepita Pesto
You only need the leaves of the parsley here, but stick the stems in your freezer - next time you make chicken or vegetable stock, add them to the pot.
 
makes about a cup of pesto
 
1 bunch parsley, leaves only 
2 handfuls pepitas (about 2/3 cup)
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
olive oil (I started with 1/2 a cup)
salt (I started with 1 teaspoon)
lemon juice (optional - I started with about half a tablespoon)
 
Briefly toast the pepitas in a dry pan over medium heat until they are just starting to take on color. Put the pepitas and garlic in the food processor and pulse a few times to chop them up. I like to do this before I add the herbs so I don't come across any huge chunks in the finished product.
 
Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the parsley, cheese, and about a teaspoon of salt, then set the processor running on low. Add the oil in a slow stream through the tube while the processor is running. I started with half a cup but ended up adding a little more; how much you use depends on how big your bunch of parsley was. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue processing.
 
When the pesto has reached a consistency you like, shut off the machine and taste the sauce. If you think it needs it, add the lemon juice, and maybe more salt, then pulse the processor a few times to thoroughly mix. Taste again and adjust accordingly.
 
Serve on vegetables, potatoes, pasta, fish, etc.
 
 

Stone Soup Farm CSA: Week Ten (and baked tomato sauce)

I know. I know. Those tomatoes! They're distracting me, too. Well, they would if they were still around. Before I wax rhapsodic, let me run down the inventory this week: beets with their greens (which are really purple), two yellow zucchini, two small pattypan squashes, a bunch of basil, a pound of carrots, two gorgeous onions and a head of red leaf lettuce. On Tuesday (vegetable day! the best day of the week!) we had a salad with the lettuce and a couple of tomatoes (plus an astonishing array of things I found in the fridge).

Wednesday I used the two remaining tomatoes in a riff on this baked pasta sauce from The Wednesday Chef. I chopped up the tomatoes into large chunks, spread them with some olive oil in a baking dish, and sprinkled a generous handful of breadcrumbs on top. (I had to use store bought panko, my freezer stash of crumbs was burned beyond recognition). I forgot the cheese, which it turns out was an error on my part. After 20 minutes at 400, I stirred the smushy melty awesomeness into a sauce, added a handful of basil and a modest shower of parmesan cheese and tossed it with some campanelle pasta. Adam's comment? "Need's more parm." He was totally right. I remember thinking that I didn't want to salt them too aggressively before they went in the oven because they'd be concentrating in flavor a bit and I knew I would be adding parmesan with the pasta. I was afraid of over salting, and instead wasn't aggressive enough. Lesson learned: don't be bashful!



I did love the texture of this sauce, however. I know it's cucina povera, but using bread crumbs with tomatoes is inspired and to me it feels decadent to use purposely sogged bread. I could be a total weirdo, but hey, maybe you'll like it, too!

What interesting things have you done with tomatoes this summer? And aren't you glad they're back with such vigor after last year's blight?

Eggs in Purgatory

Is there anything the egg can't do? It makes your cakes tall and fluffy, it makes your custards custardy, and it makes this tomato sauce into dinner. We didn't actually send eggs to the underworld for our meal, we just cooked them in spicy tomato sauce. This dish has roots in the cucina povera tradition of southern Italy, but to me, it's not poor peoples' food, it's just good. There are few things I like more than a runny yolked egg, and when you cut into this one the yolk runs out to enrich the bright, acidic tomato sauce with just enough unctuousness. You could serve it over potatoes, pasta, rice, or polenta if you like, but for a light dinner a piece of toast that you've rubbed with the cut side of a clove of garlic does the trick.

Eggs in Purgatory
Serves 2 (with leftover sauce)


Adam and I like spicy food. Add that to the fact that we're both getting over colds, and you begin to understand why I use a full 1/2 teaspoon of sinus-clearing red pepper flakes plus hot sauce. Only you know how hot is too hot for you, so use 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes to start and bump it up from there. It's much easier than drinking a gallon of milk with dinner.


2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (about a cup)
4-5 large cloves of garlic, pressed (cut this to 2 or three if you don't LOVE garlic. This is a lot.)
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste (I buy the kind in a squeezable tube so I can use small measurements like this)
1 teaspoon dried marjoram or oregano
5 shakes hot sauce (I'm a devotee of Frank's Red Hot) - optional
salt and pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
4 eggs
2 pieces Italian bread, toasted and rubbed with raw garlic (for serving)


Heat the olive oil in a large wide saucepan (one with a lid, you'll want that later) over medium heat and add the onion. Saute for about five minutes until onion is softening, then add the garlic. Lower the heat to medium low if necessary to keep the garlic from burning. Saute until onion is translucent, another minute or two and garlic is just starting to get fragrant. Add the tomato paste and red pepper flakes, stir, and saute another 30 seconds, then add the diced tomatoes. Break up the whole tomatoes with your hands and add those, then add the juice from the can. Stir in the dried marjoram or oregano, and let the whole thing simmer uncovered over medium low heat for 20-30 minutes until slightly reduced and thickened. Stir occasionally.


At this point, I set aside 2 cups of the sauce to use on pizza later in the week. If you leave it all in the pan, you will have a lot of sauce. Consider yourself warned.


Crack four eggs into the sauce, nestling each one in a bit if you can. Cover the pan and allow the eggs to poach, adjusting the heat if necessary. My eggs took about 9 minutes to set with a runny yolk over medium low heat (the edges of the sauce were bubbling). Adam left his in for about 12 minutes and his eggs were cooked through with very little ooze left in the yolk.


Serve eggs with sauce along side crusty garlic toast.